So now we find out what we all knew was coming:
Agents likely withheld information from U.S. counterparts about a cash-for-freedom deal with gunmen holding an Italian hostage for fear that Americans might block the trade, Italian news reports said yesterday. The decision by operatives of Italy's SISMI military intelligence service to keep the CIA in the dark about the deal for the release of reporter Giuliana Sgrena, might have "short-circuited" communications with U.S. forces controlling the road from Baghdad to the city's airport, the newspaper La Stampa said. … "Italian intelligence decided to free Sgrena paying a sum to the kidnappers without informing American colleagues in Iraq who, if they had known about this, would have had to oppose it, to have impeded the operation," sources said. "If this was the case, it could explain why American intelligence had not informed the American military commands about the operation and thus the patrol did not expect the car with the Italians."
They didn't tell our military that this was going to happen, they didn't give any details. And they are surprised they got shot at. Wait, there's more. The communist reporter gave her account:
The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell. Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice called the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport that I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away…when…I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier.
The driver started yelling that we were Italians. "We are Italians, we are Italians." Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat, immediately I heard his last breath as he was dying on me. I must have felt physical pain.
So didn't she say yesterday that they wern't going too fast, just cruising ya know. But now she says the car was going fast enough for the car to almost lose control. Then they never slowed for a checkpoint and we're shot:
The automobile was traversing onto a route — the road to the airport — where soldiers have been killed in shootings and by roadside bombs. U.S. soldiers had established an impromptu evening checkpoint at the entrance to the road about 90 minutes earlier and had stopped other vehicles. They knew a high-level embassy official would be moving to the airport on that road, and their aim was to support this movement.
But no specific coordination occurred between those involved in Sgrena's rescue and the military unit responsible for the checkpoint, according to the source, who said he cannot be named because the military's investigation into the incident is continuing.
Soldiers at the checkpoint have told U.S. military officers that they flashed lights, used hand signals and fired warning shots in an effort to stop the car, which they believed was traveling at more than 50 mph, a typical speed for that road. But Sgrena, who had just been released by Iraqi captors, recalled later that the car was not traveling very fast and that soldiers started firing "right after lighting" a spotlight — a decision she said was not justified. Sgrena was wounded by shrapnel in the U.S. barrage.
The absence of advance communication between the Italians and the U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint appears to have put the occupants of the car in grave jeopardy, given what many U.S. officials describe as the military's standard practice of firing at onrushing cars from their checkpoints in Iraq.
"In my view, the main contributing factor was a lack of prior coordination with the ground unit," the source said. "If requested, we would have resourced and supported this mission very differently."
And you know what else this piece of shit had to say today:
"I think that the happy end to the negotiations may have bothered them. The Americans are against this type of operation," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper Monday. "For them, war is war. Human life is worth little."
This lady is a piece of work. How many of our soldiers and innocent Iraqi's die because of all the money paid to free this waste of human tissue. As Michelle Malkin points out the sum could be as high as 13.4 million dollars paid to these terrorists:
Another estimate pegs the price of Sgrena's freedom at between $10 and $13.4 million. The Washington Times, citing the Italian newspaper La Stampa, puts the ransom figure at a reported $6 million.
The National Ledger comments:
Six million dollars?
That will purchase a lot of explosives for the Islamofascists and it shows the clear reason not to bargain with terrorists. When kidnapping becomes a profitable economic venture, the law of supply and demand kicks in–even for the terrorists. If they have indeed been paid six million dollars, they are going to want more and they understand the way to get it[:] Kidnap another six-million dollar journalist.
Yup.
Michelle also has a link to a soldiers account of dealing with this road:
This is a combat zone, there are people who want to kill us and there have been many attempts to do it. The reporters don?t include all of the other details that lead up to the shooting. When ?Ali Iraqi " ignores everything and keeps on coming, he leaves a soldier no choice. Regardless of what you read, there is no indiscriminate shooting. US soldiers are real professionals. They follow the rules. These locals ignore our directives.
RT Irish is the name of the road we travel everyday when we go out. It is the main road between the International Zone (IZ) and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). It is IED /VBIED Alley. It is considered the most dangerous section of highway in Iraq. The US State Department just announced that no US Dept Of State personnel are allowed to use RT Irish. Of course we still have the privilege of using it everyday. I guess we aren?t as valuable as a DOS employee.
There are car bombs going off all over the place in this country and these idiots are surprised when they get shot at after not obeying military commands. Idiots.
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